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Oral History Interview with J. Carlyle Sitterson, November 4 and 6, 1987. Interview L-0030. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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J. CARLYLE SITTERSON:

We did a lot of things to try to speed up the process of integration. We
really started, I read with some interest now these people who think
they're doing something in order to increase the black
presence in Chapel Hill. Well, all these things we've done
years ago, and they just fell into disuse, apparently. For example,
inviting black Merit seniors here. Well, the Black Student Movement and
the Chancellor's Office together started that way back in
1967 or '8. I wrote letters and these students went out to
visit the high schools. At that time, you must remember, the schools
were not integrated. I mean, in the sense…

PAMELA DEAN:

Theoretically they were, but…

J. CARLYLE SITTERSON:

I mean, they were in the sense that there were a few good
, but they were essentially black high schools and
white high schools, not so designated, but, in fact, that's
what they were. So these students went out to these, and they were
getting no contact with the University, the black high schools. So no
recruiting was going on, no information and so on. So we started
several, and I appointed, as you know, I appointed Ben Renevick to the
staff of the Admissions Office to establish contact with these, with our
black high schools, to inform them about the University and the
opportunities for them here. We also sent students out to them, and I
wrote letters to all the principals, all of them
in the state of North Carolina, telling them that we wanted to do this
and urging them to welcome these students who were coming through,
explaining the University. All of that resulted in a very substantial
increase in black enrollment. When I came in as Chancellor, the black
presence in the freshman class… Now, that's really
the only place to measure it because that's the place where
you, the measure, the number totally at one time doesn't
measure what you're accomplishing anything like as much as,
because the freshman class, you're projecting several more
years for it. We went from an entering class of thirty-five black
freshmen to more than 250, and we did that in those six years. Since
then, we have gone from 250 to 350, and that's all.